GameSpot quotes new NPD
research indicating more than half of all US citizens are video gamers, which we
imagine might include a bit of Solitaire and Minesweeper (the largest
demographic identified is "mostly female gamers who play less than four hours a
week and don't own a console"). The NPD indulges in their predilection for
stereotyping, breaking down gamers into seven categories, which if we had our
way would be identified by the names of the seven dwarves, or at least the seven
deadly sins. Anyway, here is a bit of breakdown on the US PC gaming
scene:

Though it does not lump them into a single category, NPD estimates
that some 67.3 million Americans use the PC as their primary gaming platform. Up
slightly at 25.9 million were "Online PC Gamers," a mostly female group who
spent 73 percent of their eight hours of weekly game time online. The country's
17.3 million "Avid PC Gamers" were the most hardcore PC segment, playing 23
hours a week. Finally, "Offline PC Gamers," totaling 24.1 million, were the
polar opposite of their online cousins, spending 82 percent of their time
playing unconnected to the Internet.